Difficulty Sharing
by psychadelic
Summary: The seconds seemed like minutes and the minutes seemed like hours and Gibbs was holding his breath, waiting for her to reply. He knew the cogs of his boss’s brain were turning at a thousand rotations per second as he processed Tony’s statement. Kibbs


**Disclaimer: **Nothing belongs to me. Used for pure entertainment and will be replaced in the same condition as it was taken in.

**A/N: **Written after I watched Doppelganger and Black Water. For the story sake, please assume that Doppelganger happened before Black Water. That being said, there are no spoilers unless you haven't seen the above mentioned episodes and reference is made to an episode in Season 1 - My Other Left Foot. If you haven't seen the episodes, which hole are you stuck in?? Not beta-ed but I did spell check and read over it a few times. Spelling errors do occur and at times so do grammar ones. I accept responsibility for all of them.

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**Difficulty Sharing**

Gibbs watched as Kate paced the length of Abby's lab, a worried look set on her face and her mind deep in thought. She had gone on a date, at her boss's behest, with Thomas McAllistair, the tall, attractive guy who just happened to be a suspect in the case they were currently investigating. Well, it was not that he was their only suspect; it was just that he had more of a motive than anyone else did, at this point, to kill his own brother.

Despite the fact that she was on a work assignment, Kate had let Thomas wine and dine her, and she had been completely smitten when he offered to take her for a ride in his new airplane. He was a complete gentleman, and Kate knew this was as good as she was going to find. He was definitely not the man she wanted, but in this case, she decided she would settle for second best. It was better than being with some schmuck or loser… and he was somewhat good looking.

It, therefore, came as a surprise when she heard her boss ask her if everything was okay with her. He usually did not ask personal questions, just as he did not share any personal information about himself. Some people would have told you trying to open up clams were easier than trying to get the silver haired man to open up and reveal something about himself.

A few excruciating minutes of pacing later, Kate was put out of her misery, when the test result Abby was running showed that Thomas was really telling them the truth and he did not have any hand in the murder of his brother. She let out a breath she had unconsciously been holding, and Gibbs noticed her reaction immediately. A small frown made it's way to his forehead, but Kate was too distracted and relieved to notice the frown, and she could not help the small bubble of hope that began to grow in her chest…

Maybe… She could just make it work with Thomas.

He did seem genuinely interested in her, unlike Dwayne, Jared or Edward… or was it Howard? She had not made it past the first date with that last guy and she used it as an excuse not to remember his name. They were a part of her past and she was not going to spend a minute longer dwelling on something that was never meant to work in the first place.

A few hours later the case was solved and she still had a dessert date with the attractive blonde man, one that she was looking extremely forward to. Tony had tried to wheedle his way into accompanying Kate on her date, but Thomas had simply rejected the idea, leaving a disappointed Tony standing speechless looking at the closed silver doors of the elevator, that had moments ago whisked his friend and co-worker away.

Gibbs left the office earlier than usual that evening, made his way straight home and directly to his basement to work off the tension he was experiencing. He picked up the sander from the workbench behind him, and started on the rib closest to him. He tried to get the image of Kate in her heart-stopping, sexy dress she wore on her date, out of his mind. All it would lead to was another night of wishful thinking, and drowning his misfortune of not having her with him in a bottle of bourbon.

The more he tried to delete the mental picture from his memory, the more it appeared, unbidden in his head and eventually he gave up working on his boat and drinking a lethal combination of coffee and bourbon as a distraction. There was only one way in which this matter was going to be put to a rest. He would go back to HQ and help Ducky with his 'meat puzzle' in order to calm his raging nerves and keep his mind far, far away from the "Kate Todd" territory it was so used to getting lost in.

When he arrived back at HQ, he was not surprised to find his senior agent sitting at his respective desk, working diligently, a tired frown gracing his features. Well DiNozzo always said he did his best work at night. Gibbs smiled as he crossed the bullpen, coming to a stop behind his desk, and taking a long, wistful look at Kate's unoccupied desk before taking his seat. She was probably still on her date with the tall blondie, who had the privelage and the damn guts to ask her out.

"Boss," Tony greeted the older agent, as Gibbs settled into his seat, behind his desk.

Tony had never seen Gibbs look so…

Well there was no word to express the look that he saw on his superior's face. He did, however, know better than to ask Gibbs what the issue was and so the two men continued working on cold cases in silence, with each of their minds focusing on anything but the papers that cluttered their desks at the moment.

Twenty minutes later, the silence of the third floor was broken once again, causing Tony to look up to see who the cause of the noise was. He saw McGee walking toward the bullpen, a worried look gracing his boyish features. Either this was proof that the team really did not have a life outside of NCIS or they were all worried about their fellow co-worker. For Tony and McGee it was the latter and as for Gibbs, it was anyone's guess what his reason was.

"Boss, Tony," McGee greeted as he too took a seat behind his desk and started reading through the files that littered his desk.

The two older agents nodded their acknowledgements in silence, and McGee did not prompt them for any more other reaction. He saw the slight scowl that was still plastered across the silver haired man's face since that afternoon, and he now noticed the look the adorned Tony's usually worry free features.

"Is there something I should know about?" McGee asked to no one in particular, but his gaze was focused on Tony, since he knew their boss would not answer.

"Nope," came Tony's reply and Gibbs merely growled something almost inaudible but definitely unclear to the others.

Gibbs seemed more agitated and restless than usual, although neither of the boys could figure out the reason and they did not want to be the cause of pissing Gibbs off more than he already was. He had figured out what the cause death was, figured that the detective had messed with the crime-scene and still closed the case. He was supposed to be satisfied. Instead, he was not and that had led to him ingesting more than his normal doses of caffeine.

They worked in silence for a few more hours and Gibbs was finally engrossed enough in reading a casefile that he forgot all about Kate and her 'date'. McGee and Tony occasionally stole glances at their boss and then each other, both wanting to know what it was that was bothering him so much but neither of them had enough courage to ask him. With the current state of mind and mood he was in, McGee would bet his life that Gibbs would've shot whoever asked him what was wrong with him.

The silence of the bullpen was broken for the third time that evening around ten minutes to midnight. Just as he had done the previous two times, Tony looked up to see the source of the distraction. His expression lit up when he saw it was Kate, who was walking toward the bullpen, a hint of a ghost of a smile on her face. There was now someone he could actually get a response from, without getting a slap to the back of his head, a tired or irritated sigh or worse the 'Gibbs glare as he liked to call it.

When he saw Kate was close enough to heat him, he wasted no time in firing her up. There was no better chance than the one that had presented itself as soon as she walked in into the bullpen. He lifted his left hand, and looked at his watch, making sure to keep his face as serious as he could as well as ascertaining Kate was watching every movement he made.

"Aah, there's still ten minutes left till the clock strikes midnight. Did you leave early because you were scared prince charming would turn into an ugly bullfrog at the stroke of midnight…? Cinderella?" Tony asked and in the process disturbing both Gibbs and McGee's concentration, and thus forcing them to look up and Tony and Kate.

Kate chose not to answer him, knowing he would twist anything and everything she said. Instead, she looked around the bullpen, astonished to see Gibbs and McGee staring back at her. It was way past working hours and she knew McGee had left before she did, earlier that evening. So how could he have come back and not told her anything about a new case. "Surely there was no new case this fast," she though to herself.

Gibbs gave her a thorough once over, taking in everything about her. She was still wearing the dress he said she looked good in earlier. It was creased in some places, making him painfully aware that, that Thomas guy might have had his grubby little hands all over her. Her hair was disheveled, making him once again think of McAllister's hands running through her long brown locks, as they sat side-by-side enjoying glasses of sweet wine. He noticed her lipstick was not as bright as when she left, but before his mind could draw up mental pictures of **HIS **Kate in compromising positions with that guy, he assumed it had faded while she was eating and that nothing else had transpired between them.

Wait!! Since when had Kate become HIS? He had not laid a claim on her… He did quite like the idea of it though.

"Are you going to be seeing him again?" Tony's voice cut into Gibbs's thoughts and despite his seeming disinterest in Kate's personal life, and the conversation, he waited with baited breath for her answer. The seconds seemed to like minutes and the minutes seemed like hours and Gibbs was still holing his breath, waiting for her to reply. Kate, merely glanced at Tony before she grabbed a small package from her desk and headed toward the elevator, no doubt on her way to Abby to discuss her date. She didn't feel the need to answer her oh-so-annoying co-worker.

"She didn't say no," Tony noted aloud, so both the other agents could hear. This made Gibbs lose concentration on the work he was doing and he looked up from reading the report on his desk. He glanced at his senior agent, an unreadable expression on his face. McGee chose to stay out of it, but glanced from Tony to Gibbs and back to Tony as though he were watching a tennis match. He knew the cogs of his boss's brain were already turning at a thousand rotations per second as he processed Tony's statement.

"I need coffee!" Gibbs decided as he stood up forcefully from his seat, knocking his chair into the partition separating his workspace from the one behind him.

He was almost at the ground level, when at the last minute he decided he needed to ask Abby about the results of the blood samples he asked her to process earlier in the evening. He stepped out of the cold metal box and was about to step into the lab and ask Abby about the results of the blood spatter when he heard the two voices. He knew exactly who they belonged to and so, he waited quietly inside the lab, just out of view of both women but well within earshot of their conversation.

"And?" He caught the tail end of Abby's sentence.

"I don't know Abby. He is definitely good looking but there's just something about him that does not seem to keep me interested," Kate sighed tiredly.

"Does that mean there's no chance of a second date?" the lab tech enquired kindly.

"I'm not sure just yet," the brunette agent answered, "he does serve as a good distraction," she added as an afterthought.

"So, I'll see you as soon as this shift ends!" Abby confirmed their plans as she saw Kate heading to exit of the lab and toward the elevator.

As the conversation died down, Gibbs took this as his opportunity the lab as well as the conversation. He stepped into the lab softly, waiting for both, or either of the women to acknowledge his presence. He stood, rooted to the spot for a full two seconds before Kate saw him as she turned to the door of the lab and continued her journey toward the silver metal box that would lead her away from this precarious situation and this damn building. His intense gaze was focused completely on her, as he asked Abby about the blood spatter.

"No result yet Boss Man," Abby replied cheerily. He gave her a pointed look, indicating that he wanted her to go back and try rushing the results, but she was having none of it. She was too interested in what was about to happen between her two best friends. Gibbs, therefore, had to use another tactic to get her out of her own lab and he had to do it really quickly.

"Abby, Ducky has a few samples he needs processed from the meat puzzle victims," Gibbs announced loudly, but not unkindly, and leaving no space for debate or protest from his lab rat. Abby made a face at him, causing him to smile slightly, and made her way out of the lab two minutes later, but not before giving Kate two thumbs up signs and mouthing a silent good luck before she exited the large room and made her way to autopsy one level below hers.

Just as he did in the bullpen, Gibbs gave his female subordinate another thorough once over, his eyes roaming the expanse of her body, the way her dress clung to her in all the right places, and he marveled at how absolutely sexy she could look in anything without even trying.

"Is there a reason you're blocking my way to the elevator?" Kate asked as he stepped in front of her and as she unsuccessfully tried to manoeuver her way around him and leave the lab.

"Nope," he simply smiled at her, but his eyes were still intense and focused, never wavering from her body.

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard his voice. It was not as if she hadn't heard it before, she'd been working with him for almost two years now. She should have been used to it, but there were some things that would throw her off balance no matter how hard she tried to not let that happen and this was one of those things.

"How could he make a one syllable word sound so sinfully alluring and hot?" she wondered to herself.

She needed to get out of his intoxicating presence because as long as he was near her, she was incapable of thinking clearly or rationally. Damn why didn't Thomas have this kind of effect on her? Then she wouldn't be in such a complicated predicament. As if he read her thoughts, he took a step closer to her and immediately the warning bells started in her head. If she stayed here, in this lab, in his presence any longer there was no way she was going to leave unscathed. Now, her only chance of survival and self-preservation would be to run far, far away from this enticing man.

"Gibbs" she huffed impatiently, "if we don't have a case to solve, I'm going home to get a good night's rest before you call us in tomorrow to ride our desks with all the paperwork I know you have for us to complete," she said. Finally, she managed to sidestep him and walked by, moving as rapidly as she could toward the silver steel box that would serve as her getaway vehicle in this very dangerous situation.

She had barely stepped into the metal contraption, when she felt the overwhelming aura of her boss directly behind her. She did not, however, turn around to acknowledge the fact that he had followed her into the box. She stopped halfway into the box and turned abruptly to jab the button with her thumb. She made sure to leave enough space for Gibbs to stand as far away from her as he could, but she knew it would be of no use.

The ride to the underground parking level was done in silence even though both occupants knew there was much to talk about. Kate knew her boss had overheard the conversation she and Abby had shared in the lab just before he made his presence know, and he made no mention of it.

"It was his eyesight that was rapidly deteriorating and not his hearing," she thought humourously to herself, her mouth turning up into a small smile.

She shot out of the elevator as soon as the doors slid open, leaving Gibbs trailing behind. She was feeling claustrophobic, being trapped in that small, enclosed space with Gibbs. It was already bad enough that he was invading her dreams, night after countless night, causing her to lose precious sleep, but this…

This was taking it to a completely new level. He simply could not have been 'that dense' to not know how she felt about him.

"Kate!" it was the second word she heard him say to her since she returned from her date with Thomas, almost an hour ago. She did not want to hear what he had to say, but slowed her steps toward her car, allowing him a bit of time to catch up with her.

"You didn't answer DiNozzo's question," he stated loud enough for her to hear through the twenty feet distance that still separated them.

His statement made her stop in her tracks, and she turned around sharply, fixing him with the glare he usually reserved for DiNozzo either when the senior special agent annoyed the hell out of him, or pissed him off, royally. Gibbs was proud of her glare, she was a fast learner, and well, she did learn from the best, didn't she?

"I'm off the clock, Gibbs, so if you want to discuss anything other than a case we're supposed to be working on, I'm not interested," she tried to keep her tone as even as possible.

He was taking longer strides and walking faster to reach her, before she made the decision to start walking away again. He kept his eyes firmly focused on her face, and not on the rest of her body, where her dress showed off all her delicious curves and revealed her toned calves. Damn… he really had it bad for her, but there was no way he could tell her that without the risk of getting hurt in the process.

"DiNozzo was correct! She did not say no, in fact she had avoided the entire topic of a second date with Thomas," Gibbs mused to himself, and he found his anger and jealousy levels rising exponentially.

Before he could even think, the words had tumbled out of his mouth, "you can't see him again, he's a suspect," he added the second part as an afterthought.

He knew by the look on Kate's face that it was the wrong thing to say. All the colour had drained from her face, and she paled visibly under his intense scrutiny, although he was quick to notice that her eyes were ablaze with anger. Gibbs could feel the fury radiate off her, in the now two feet distance between them.

"The case is closed and as far as I can remember, Thomas had no hand in killing or even any intent to kill his brother. The evidence proved he was and is innocent," Kate replied icily.

"And since when did my private life become a part of my professional one?" she asked him, knowing her silver haired boss would not pry or suggest anything unless it was something of major importance.

"All I'm saying, Kate, is that you should be careful. Not everyone is who we think they are, or who we'd like to believe they are," he was desperately trying to make her see reason.

"Yeah I'm sure that was the case with… What was her name?" she looked around, pretending she was trying to remember the blonde woman's name they had arrested a week ago.

"Karen Wilkerson. You do remember her don't you? Tall, blonde, attractive, pretty, yeah she definitely was a knockout, even Tony thought so. She was a damsel in distress, who needed rescuing and you rose to the challenge, magnificently. You assumed she was innocent, when in face she had murdered her employee and was planning something bigger. But since you're Gibbs the rules obviously don't apply to you and you clearly had no qualms about taking her to **your house** and showing her **your boat, **in **your basement**, and kissing her senseless while **you **showed** her** how to sand the wood to a smooth finish," Kate finished her voice merely a whisper and her chest rising and falling rapidly. She was royally pissed off.

"One point to Kate and zero to Gibbs," he thought sullenly.

Then a queer thought struck him. How did she know about his kiss with Karen? No one knew about it, or well, he sure as hell didn't tell anyone about it, so just how did his agent find out about it? He knew McGee could not have picked it up from the phone call that night. The thought puzzled him.

"I saw her reaction toward you when you interrogated her, just before you charged her. I'm a profiler Gibbs, I'm supposed to pick up on things like this, and her reaction toward you certainly did not escape my attention," her voice cut into his thoughts as she answered his unasked question.

"Okay two points to Kate and still zero to me," he amended in his mind.

"Let's not forget about Mellissa Dorn, though. The sexy redhead you were flirting with last year. She was clearly impressed by you, drooling whenever you were in her sight. You were more than willing to go out with her and her Chinese tattoos. She would have actually got the chance though, too bad she helped killed her brother though," Kate added, her tone now less icy but still not as friendly as Gibbs would have liked.

"She was flirting with me Kate," Gibbs had to make that clear; he was not the one who initiated all the flirting.

The rage that seemed to simmer down for a few minutes, earlier, was re-ignited and Kate felt her hand itching to slap the man standing so dangerously close to her.

"I am going to turn around and walk away from you, before I do something I regret," Kate stepped back and turned to face the direction her car was parked in.

Before she could take the first step, Gibbs caught her by the wrist and spun her around to, once again, face him. He closed the gap between them, allowing his chest to brush hers, while still keeping her wrist safely clasped in his hand. His other hand had by now settled on her back and was keeping her firmly pressed up against him.

Oh, this was so not going according to her plan. She was supposed to escape, unscathed and untouched. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as her breathing became shallower and irregular. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks and ears, and she knew he could see the red tinge that by now coloured her face.

"Now that you're finally silent, I'd like to have my say," he definitely wanted to have the last word.

"I have difficulty sharing," he admitted.

"What?" This was clearly not the topic they were arguing about. Where the hell did that come from? Maybe Tony was right, maybe Gibbs was going insane.

He trailed a finger up and down the length of her arm, causing the hairs to stand up and her skin to prickle.

"I was an only child growing up, and I didn't have to share anything with anyone, and therefore, I now have a problem with sharing some of my stuff," he clarified, his voice a mere whisper and his breath blowing gently on her neck.

It was only then that Kate realized he was still talking about Mellissa Dorn and how she knew he had difficulty sharing.

He continued to trail his finger up the length of her arm, and this time ran it over her clavicle. If he kept up this behaviour, she was sure he would drive her insane, and not in a good way. This was what her dreams were made of, and to have him torture her like this, with no intention of following through on his actions would leave her devastated.

She was thinking of an escape plan when she felt his warm lips, follow the route his finger had taken moments earlier, and all her resolve to flee dissolved. He knows he can feel her heart pounding in her chest, and yet she is powerless to stop it. She can't help the way she feels about this incredible man.

"You can't see him again," Gibbs whispered into her ear as he kissed her neck gently, "because I can't allow another man to touch what is mine," he continued, the possessiveness showing in his voice.

His confession brought her out of her daze, and she looked at him with an expression of total confusion on her features.

"Like I said earlier, I have difficulty sharing, and you are one of those. I am NOT wiling to share you with anyone. It's already bad enough I have to pair you up with DiNozzo or McGee sometimes, but not any more. You belong to me!" he finished, leaving no space for debate or discussion.

But, Kate being Kate, had to put in another 5c worth, "As long as it works both ways Gibbs, 'cause I am not willing to share you with that redhead either," she smiled up at him.

"Done," he agreed, and with that he kissed her on the mouth, long, slow, hard and very, very passionately.

Thomas McAllistair was now a distant memory in Kate's, silver haired fox filled mind and Tony's question was finally answered. Kate was definitely not going to be seeing the blonde pilot again.

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Reviews are welcome, but I will not beg for them.


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